July 6, 2007 - This is not the first time that the Transformers have made it to the console scene, but I feel confident enough to say that this is the first time that they have been treated fairly. Of course, this may have something to do with the fact that their recent movie was a huge success. On the other hand, there may be something a little special in the game for those of us that grew up watching the robots in disguise for many years. It is almost as if the makers of this game were actually fans of the generation one Transformers, and I could not be happier.

The story of the game follows that of the movie, at least when you are playing as the Autobots. You start the game off as Bumblebee trying to find the location of the Allspark, the thing that grants life to the transformers. You are led to a young boy named Sam Witwicky who just happens to be looking for a car. Bumblebee quickly discovers that the Decepticons are also on Earth and looking for the Allspark. The Autobot side of the storyline follows very closely to the movie storyline, whereas playing as the Decepticons takes you through some of the scenes of the movie, but it splinters into variations of some scenes, allowing you to cause severe mayhem and destruction. Think of it as an awesome "What If?" scenario. In fact, because of this you might find yourself battling as a Decepticon more often than not. The great thing about picking sides is that you will be able to do this every time you start to play. Instead of just picking a side and then going through that story and then starting a new file to play as the other side, you can select either Autobot or Decepticon each time you load up.

While that is a great thing right from the start, it does demonstrate exactly how short the game is. Literally, if you play as just one side, the game is so short you could theoretically beat it in one afternoon. Adding the other side's storyline into the completion percentage does help make the game a little longer, but it is obvious how long you will play the game if you are just trying to play out the movie. That is probably why Traveller's Tales chock the game full of unlockable content. For instance, there are 158 unlockable images for you to find throughout the game, seven videos for your viewing pleasure ranging from trailers for the movie to animated Transformer commercials. Finally, probably the best unlockable for the die hard Transformer fans amongst us, Generation 1 character versions of our beloved Transformers with Jazz, Starscream, and of course Optimus Prime rounding my favorites of the bunch.

With so many different playable Transformers in the game, I have to admit this is a great time to get to know these characters considering the time allotted some of them in the movie, you have to expect the game to feel a little shallow on the controls of the different characters. This is a little disappointing for those of us looking for a little more variety in the controls of the Transformers. Then again, for the button mashers, it comes in as an extreme advantage considering the number of playable characters. There are a few varying differences in the control schematics for Starscream and Megatron, but these quickly become repetitive.